Run, Forrest, Run....

So, in an effort to carve just a little time out of each day for myself, I've thrown myself headlong into distance running.

It started out two summers ago with my first 5k, where I startlingly enough learned that not just running, but racing is addictive. Now - I'm not really fast - I have often been passed by the elderly and disabled, but I've always come out in the top half of my division.

Took a bit of a hiatus to be pregnant with the twins, but jumped back in with 10ks this last spring. Just finished my first 15k on Sunday (I *just* stopped feeling like I need a hip replacement surgery this morning), and just signed up for my first half marathon (The Shamrock in March 07), and intend to do the Chicago Marathon in Oct. 07. I even dropped almost $200 on the nike+ipod so I can know EXACTLY how far I've been running at any given second.

Now, since I've started racing, it seems to me that I can't go to an event without tripping over another NY Capital Region planner - at one race this spring, 5 planners that I new happened to be doing a 5mi. trail run.

So - I know Mskis runs (and got me a kick ass running journal for my SS gift two years ago) - but anyone else on the bandwagon?

Actually, I have never been really fond of running, although in High School I was forced to run 1.5 miles once, and felt really good afterward, which I think was the "runner's high". I have been too lazy to achieve that since.

I have thought about starting again. What do you recommend for a first timer?

You get all squeezed up inside/Like the days were carved in stone/You get all wired up inside/And it's bad to be alone

You can go out, you can take a ride/And when you get out on your own/You get all smoothed out inside/And it's good to be alone
-Peart

Back when my work was a 3 minute commute I used to run almost every day. Now that I work 9-10 hour days and have a 1 hour commute each way I have very little time to run. I generally try to run at least 1 mile one day each weekend - but I found that once you stop running regularly you very quickly start to really suck at it (i.e., no endurance).

With a lack of time for bike riding(hard to find 6-8 hours at a time) I am considering taking up running. I also have it in my mind that I have to do a marathon in my life, so I am thinking about working for next year's here ore maybe a vacation home for theirs.

As for planners and running each year at the CIP there is a fun run, that is pretty competitive.

Too lazy to beat myself up for being to lazy to beat myself up for being too lazy to... well you get the point....

I used to do a lot of running back at HS- was on the cross country team, made state etc etc, but i got bad knees and have been reluctant ever since to do a lot of running.

Since then i have run one 14km fun run (City to Surf in Sydney- awesome run!) but havent done anything since. I love running it is so addictive- i have started back at the gym and i get on the running machine thinking i will take it easy, but i cant help myself, go full pelt every time. I went for a walk the other day and wished i have run instead.

I guess i am a little nervous to go running with my bad knees- but i just have this need to run Downtown this thread has made me think i should just go for it and run again!

"Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?" Zoolander

I have been running the 2.5 miles to and from work almost every single day since the begining of August, which has been great, for a number of reasons.

1) I have lost about 12 pounds. When I went for a stretch of not drinking for about two weeks I ended up being down about 23 pounds from my starting weight. Once I started drinking again I got lazy and then ended up getting sick, so that combination of beer and not running made me put on some more pounds. I am tentatively planning to not drink between January 1 and the Super Bowl, just to see how much I can lose.

2) I have saved almost $200 that I would have paid to ride the Metro one stop each way. I do end up driving my car a little more because every night I go to my office to drop off the clothes I am going to wear the next day. But based on the miles and my car's average miles per gallon, I still net a total of about $160 on transportation costs.

3) I spend about as much time running each was as I would if I were taking the Metro, so my total transportation time per day is about the same. What is really nice is that since I no longer feel like I need to work out when I get home from work, I have a lot more free time.

I would definitly advise anyone for whom it is feasible to run to work to do so.

I have been running the 2.5 miles to and from work almost every single day since the begining of August, which has been great, for a number of reasons.

1) I have lost about 12 pounds. When I went for a stretch of not drinking for about two weeks I ended up being down about 23 pounds from my starting weight. Once I started drinking again I got lazy and then ended up getting sick, so that combination of beer and not running made me put on some more pounds. I am tentatively planning to not drink between January 1 and the Super Bowl, just to see how much I can lose.

2) I have saved almost $200 that I would have paid to ride the Metro one stop each way. I do end up driving my car a little more because every night I go to my office to drop off the clothes I am going to wear the next day. But based on the miles and my car's average miles per gallon, I still net a total of about $160 on transportation costs.

3) I spend about as much time running each was as I would if I were taking the Metro, so my total transportation time per day is about the same. What is really nice is that since I no longer feel like I need to work out when I get home from work, I have a lot more free time.

I would definitly advise anyone for whom it is feasible to run to work to do so.

can i ask a slightly personal question: do you shower when you get to work?

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.-Martin Luther King Jr.

I like to run, I don't do it quite enough on "real" ground bu I do enjoy it. The only "race" I have ever been in was a Frost Bite Series at Forest Park in STL. It was a series of runs (starting with 3k up to a 5k), it was in the middle of January at around 8 in the morn!! guhgughgu it was cold!
I run on the machines in the gym mostly but in the spring I try to get out on real ground about once a week. I can barely run an entire mile without stopping though (I do continue to run, its just often a mix of fast walking and running, I simply don't have the endurance)
It is addicting, its the feeling I have after pushing myself that hard (numbness, etc) that is so addicting. My best friend runs the Chicago Marathon every year. The training that leads up to it and the way she feels for about 3 days afterwards, I am not sure its worth it!! Three weeks before the marathon she runs 20 miles on a Saturday morning and thats just the end of training. But I am proud of her and try to get there each year to watch her run it, its VERY inspiring!

I like running, but sometimes I have a hard time staying motivated. I've run for years, since high school, but have not done a 10K race in a bit. I recently joined a gym to try to mix up my exercise routine a bit- add some lifting, spinning, yoga, etc- and that's helping. Hopefully, by the time spring rolls around, I'll be ready to run outside again. Now the nights are cold and dark.

I have to ask, what exactly do you find addicting about running/racing?

I think its a couple things. I always feel SO good after a run - physically and emotionally. Well, maybe not physically after a race where I've really pushed myself, but training runs - definitely. And after a race - I feel like I've challenged myself, in a way that I don't get to in the rest of my everyday life.

I think its also about appreciating my physical body in a way that's been really difficult post-partum with the twins. I'm done having kids, being pregnant, nursing, I was feeling like "ok - this is MY body for the rest of my life - what am I going to do with it, aside from be annoyed at how my kids have aesthetically ruined it?" and instead of focusing on the maddening skin pouch below my navel, I pay attention to my improving race times, and how good my lungs and legs feel. And strong and kick ass running makes me feel.

I think the other thing - running is exclusively MINE. It so selfish - I don't do it for my kids, or husband, or job, or to be a good friend or daughter. The only reason I do it is for me - I'm completely me in my own head for 30 minutes, thinking about what I need to do on that run. And that never ever happens to me otherwise, since the twins have been born. Its almost zen.

Not much of a runner, very seldom do I do anything other than 15-10 minutes on the treadmill or around the neighborhood.

However, I am in training to do the wasatch powder keg race this year: roughly 6 miles, 6,000 vertical feet of climbing, 6,000 vert of skiing. Starting at an elevation of 8200 feet and going up and down several mountains, max out at 10,500 with the longest continuous hike of roughly 1800 vertical.

Back In The Day

You wouldn't know it to look at this lumbering bear now, but I was a distance runner for a number of years.

Jump in the "wayback machine" back to the early 1980's. I broke my arm, playing basketball. My twice-a-week basketball games were over, for awhile, so I thought I would try running. I started by just running around a city block. (I lived in north central Toledo.....traditional grid pattern streets.)

Each day I would try to run just a little farther. That technique worked for me, because within six months I was running in 10K races, 5K races, etc. I became so addicted to running that I would get pixxed-off if I didn't run. For about a five-year period I was running 6 to 9 miles, usually 5 days a week.

Because I am a stats geek, I tracked every mile on my predecessor to Excel.....yellow legal pads. I even gave "names" to the different routes I would run, often kicking-in local attraction names, etc. For instance, when I would run a certain route that included jogging past Westgate Shopping Center, that was my "Westgate Route". What a geek.

Eventually I tired of city streets and sidewalks and started to drive over to our area's great metro-parks. Often I would make the drive to Oak Openings (a huge metro-park near Toledo's airport) and run the different color-posts-identified trails. I would be so calm after running, I would cruise around the southwestern part of Lucas County and the northeastern part of Henry County. These "calm" cruises eventually led me on a path to move to the boonies.

Disaster struck, though. In the later 1980's I pulled a hamstring. That injury kept me off the trails for a while and when I returned I changed.....because of the discomfort of the torn hammy.....the way I ran. Eventually, running became a chore instead of an excitement.

During that running period of my life I dropped a ton of weight.....going from around 240 to about 205.

Now the disclaimer: I was the world's slowest runner. Well, not quite the slowest, but still pretty dang slow. I loved the distance and kept a steady (but slower) pace. In 10K runs I would finish in the second group of runners.

Yes, I did get a "runner's high". When I ran as often as I did I would start slow and after a bit something would kick in.....suddenly my pace would quicken, my smile would widen, my muscles would stop aching.

I think its a couple things. I always feel SO good after a run - physically and emotionally. Well, maybe not physically after a race where I've really pushed myself, but training runs - definitely. And after a race - I feel like I've challenged myself, in a way that I don't get to in the rest of my everyday life.

I think its also about appreciating my physical body in a way that's been really difficult post-partum with the twins. I'm done having kids, being pregnant, nursing, I was feeling like "ok - this is MY body for the rest of my life - what am I going to do with it, aside from be annoyed at how my kids have aesthetically ruined it?" and instead of focusing on the maddening skin pouch below my navel, I pay attention to my improving race times, and how good my lungs and legs feel. And strong and kick ass running makes me feel.

I think the other thing - running is exclusively MINE. It so selfish - I don't do it for my kids, or husband, or job, or to be a good friend or daughter. The only reason I do it is for me - I'm completely me in my own head for 30 minutes, thinking about what I need to do on that run. And that never ever happens to me otherwise, since the twins have been born. Its almost zen.

Sounds like a great place to be, on a run. The interval method for getting started sounds doable for any novice, walk run, walk, run.